New album – ‘At Swim’ – released August 19th via Play It Again Sam recordings

Lisa Hannigan has announced details of an intimate European headline tour, in support of the forthcoming new album ‘At Swim’ (released on August 19th via Play It Again Sam recordings). Tickets go on sale Friday July 1st at 9AM via http://lisahannigan.ie.

Produced by Aaron Dessner, ‘At Swim’ – Lisa’s third and arguably most bewitching record – follows the double-platinum, Mercury-nominated debut ‘Sea Sew’, and 2011’s ‘Passenger’ (which charted at number 1 in Ireland, and earned Lisa another Choice Music Prize nomination). Launched with new track ‘Prayer For The Dying’, the album’s first single will follow shortly.

After playing in support of ‘Passenger’ for nearly two years, Lisa Hannigan struggled at first to write new material for ‘At Swim’. A new relationship meant that she was dividing her time between Dublin and London: adrift and lost, she threw herself into distraction instead. There was an acting debut as a mermaid in the Oscar-nominated animation ‘Song of the Sea’, soundtrack work on ‘Fargo’ and the Oscar-winning score for ‘Gravity’, all the while founding and co-hosting the acclaimed ‘Soundings’ podcast (which saw Lisa turn interviewer, and speak to guests such as Harry Shearer, Sharon Horgan and David Arnold).

The breakthrough came when Hannigan got an email out of the blue from Aaron Dessner, guitarist with The National and producer for the likes of Sharon Van Etten and Local Natives. Taking up Dessner’s suggestion to work together and rediscovering the collaborative spirit she’d missed in Dublin enabled Lisa to see her time in London in a different light. So while ‘At Swim’ is in part about homesickness and isolation, it’s also – profoundly and very movingly – about love.

Having first exchanged ideas over email and iPhones, ‘At Swim’ surfaced when Lisa and Aaron finally met up in Denmark: recording then took place in a church in Hudson, New York, during a furiously-creative seven-day stint. Despite openly being written lost-at-sea, you sense that at this point in her career, Lisa Hannigan is now a strong enough swimmer to go as far out as she wants; to darker depths than before, where the treasure lies, and bring it back to us.